New Haven’s not playing around with its playing around this week, as plays are staged, games are played and popular annual rituals play out.
Monday, May 2
Samuel Beckett’s “absurdly funny and boundlessly compassionate portrait of the human spirit” Happy Days, starring screen and stage legend Dianne Wiest and directed by Yale theater bigwig James Bundy, is now in previews at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel St, New Haven; 203-432-1234). The next show is tonight at 8 p.m., but if this notice is too short, or if there aren’t any tickets left by the time this publishes, there are nearly 20 other showings before Happy Days bows out on May 21. $63-94, with discounts for students and Yale employees.
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Tuesday, May 3
The Leigh Page Prize goes to promising first-year graduate students in Yale’s Physics Department. The Leigh Page Prize Lectures, however, which feature a “distinguished” physicist speaking on topics relevant to his or her area of expertise, go to “all interested persons.” This year, California Institute of Technology’s John Preskill is the lecturer, and he’ll be taking on three subjects in three days, with each talk beginning at 4 p.m. The first, titled “Quantum Computing and the Entanglement Frontier,” happens today in Room 59 of the Sloane Physics Lab (217 Prospect St, New Haven). Free.
Wednesday, May 4
“May the Fourth be with you,” temporarily lisped Star Wars fans are saying across the world today. New Haven’s are gathering tonight at Ordinary (990 Chapel St, New Haven), where “there will be costumes, a movie, drinks masterfully designed to follow Star Wars themes” and, courtesy of Elm City Games, a relevant board gaming area. On top of that, Imagine Nation Collective, a New Haven-based “experiences” company, is putting on a contained LARP (Live-Action Role-Playing) scenario—sort of like a murder mystery, but with an original Star Wars-themed plot and, as far as we can tell, no murders. 7 p.m. Free to attend.
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Thursday, May 5
Tonight at 8, the New Haven Theater Company debuts its latest production: David Auburn’s Proof. Directed here by NHTC stalwart Steven Scarpa, and starring fellow NHTC stalwarts Megan Keith Chenot, George Kulp, Deena Nicol-Blifford and Christian Shaboo, the play centers around 25-year-old Catherine, who’s “mourning her troubled genius of a father” and managing other significant stressors besides. But “when a notebook is discovered in the house containing a brilliant mathematical proof, its authorship, as well as Catherine’s grasp on reality, comes into question.” $20. 839 Chapel Street, New Haven.
Friday, May 6
It’s baaaack: On9, the monthly warm-seasons event series highlighting the most southeastern of New Haven’s historic nine squares, returns tonight with Brew On9, a two-hour, $15 pub crawl whose destinations are mostly non-pubs like MakeHaven, Capture Salon, EcoWorks, Neville Wisdom’s Fashion Design Studio and the initial check-in spot, Baobab Tree Studios. But there are some bars in the mix, too, including Barcade, a tavern/vintage arcade hybrid that’s ginned up a ton of excitement and just enjoyed its grand opening on Sunday. 6 to 8 p.m.
It’s also baaaack: Artwalk, Westville’s annual arts festival, gets started tonight with a “Street Party + Beer Garden” from 7 to 10. Taking over a block of Central Avenue near Fountain Street, the beer garden costs $15 in advance or $20 at the door, while the free portion of the schedule includes a dance party led by DJ Dooley-O; a fashion show put on by vintage apparel shop Vintanthromodern and fashion/oddity shop Strange Ways; and a performance by A Broken Umbrella Theatre. Then, starting at 11 a.m. tomorrow, Artwalk hits full stride, with street vendors spanning artisan tents (like the ones pictured above) and food trucks; neighborhood studio tours and gallery openings; two stages featuring live music and dance; and special installations and activities, including a climbing wall for the kids.
Saturday, May 7
Artwalk’s itinerary seems to conclude around 5 p.m., which leaves enough time to catch your breath before heading to a free 6 p.m. screening at offbeat “process space” No Pop (130 Park St, New Haven). “Body Doubles,” it’s called—a sort of experimental film festival with 10 artists represented. “Ranging from performance documentation to cinematic vignettes,” organizers say, “the assembled videos will be screened in pairs that are in conversation, or counterpoint.” And if you like to eat while you watch your cinema, the Farm Belly food truck will be parked outside.
Sunday, May 8 – Mother’s Day
Cityseed’s Edgewood Park Farmers’ Market opens for the 2016 season today, and it may be the right place to get Mother’s Day offerings that would benefit from freshness. That includes “yummy pastry treats and farm-fresh flowers,” as organizers point out, and it also includes local produce you might use to make Mom a special dinner.
Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
